Ooo shit………Bang!!! Very sad!! Here you meet an accident, unfortunately. But, after all, it is also a part of the game. When you are on the road in your car within heavy traffic, you are likely to hit or be hit. Every year, more than six million car accidents occur only in the United States and every third accident involves a personal injury.
Moreover, two out of every ten accidents involve some fatal personal injuries to the drivers or the passengers. Let aside the stats, your main focus must be on the point about what to do after a car accident. Certain steps to follow after you meet a car accident.
Table of Contents
What To Do After A Car Accident: A Guideline To Follow
Being a sensible person, you should take some steps to protect yourself and your interests after a car accident. The following steps will ensure everyone is safe, the law is there intact and the insurance claim process gets the start. So, here is what to do after a car accident.
Assess the Damage
Before you do anything, assess the damage from your accident – firstly to you and any passengers, drivers, pedestrians, or anyone else involved in the crash. Call an ambulance if there’s an injury, no matter how small, so that the person gets the treatment they need. This will also factor into your compensation later.
Take pictures of the damage done to your car, and later write an account of the car accident and related damage for the police report as well as for your insurance claim. If your car is drivable, attempt to get any parts that are fixable fixed – leaving things broken may cause further damage to your car.
As you had responsibility for this damage, you may not be able to get them covered later. If you do carry out repairs, make sure to keep the receipts in case you can get the cost refunded.
Protect the Scene and Get to Safety
Try to clear away the road for the rest of the traffic at the earliest in order to avoid any other possible accident. If your car is still movable, drive it to the roadside and if not so, leave it over there and get yourself to safety. Your foremost priority after the car accident must be to save yourself and the whole scene.
Call the Police
It is always wise to call the police immediately no matter what the magnitude of the accident is. In order to file a claim with your insurance company, you must need a police report. It holds true even if you have to make a claim just for the damage to your vehicle.
To facilitate the police maximum, it will be very helpful to keep the location of all the vehicles involved intact unless it disturbs the flow of traffic over there.
Capture the Necessary Photographs
No doubt, the police will do its work but you must take the necessary pictures with your own mobile phone camera. These pictures will help you later on many occasions during the investigation regarding your insurance claim. All this should never interfere with the on-going investigation on the part of the police officers.
Make an Accurate Record of the Whole Incident
Tell the whole incident to the investigating officer thoroughly and honestly to the best of your ability. If you are unaware of certain facts, tell the officer very frankly that you do not know the facts. Your misstatement will ruin the whole case for you and no claim will go in your favor.
Moreover, you must also make sure that the statements recorded by the others involved in the accident are also true to the actual. An accurate record is a real record; otherwise, all go waste in the end.
Exchange Information
This is again the job of the police officer investigating the whole accident, but you should also do so for the sake of convenience afterward. If anything went wrong, you would have your own informative data to proceed.
You should get the name, address and the telephone number of all the persons involved in the accident. Also, it is of dire importance to record the information about the witnesses to the accident. Besides, the data about the insurance companies involved should also be there with you. All this will greatly help your attorney fight for your claim later on.
On top of everything, you should also get the police report number from the investigating police officer. With this number, you will easily collect the police report
Related Pick: Newly Qualified Drivers: The Dangers Of Overconfidence
Find Out If You’re Covered
Contact your insurance company, and find out an estimate for the cost of repairing your car. An insurance adjuster may come to evaluate the damages and work out a cost if your car isn’t drivable. But if it is, you will most likely be asked to drive to your insurance company’s location.
Also, GPS vehicle monitoring can also be used in such case which must be pre-installed in vehicle for Intelligent Vehicle Monitoring. It provides essential vehicle details which can help get the details more accurately and precisely.
Car repairs can be pricey. So before any accidents, make sure to find a good lawyer who will ensure you’re receiving the best car breakdown service you can get for the best price, so you don’t end up paying more than you should. After your insurance company has estimated your car’s repairs, get a second estimate from your local body shop (if the body shop doesn’t agree, get them to ring your insurance company).
Once the price agreed, your insurance company will pay for the repair. If your car is beyond repair, or “totaled”, your insurance company will give you the fair market value (the cost your car was worth before the accident) or the estimated cost of repairing your car.
Go for Medical Attention
Be very much particular in this connection, as it often happens that you may feel the most
Unfortunately, if you get unconscious or dazed even for a while after the accident, there are chances that you may have got closed head injury or a concussion. Hence, you must seek
The Aftermath
Whether you’re waiting for your car to be repaired, or you’ve given up on your car and decided to buy a new one, it may take a bit of waiting time. In the meantime, you’ll want to carefully hire a rental car to make sure you have a way to get around (for example, a way to get to work). The insurance company may reimburse this cost. There are some important aftermath to consider as well, such as;
- Authority Cues. After contacting insurance, it is necessary to be in touch with legal authentication so no one can object to the case after the accident. These authorities help out in cases regarding injuries, losses, and so on.
- Saving Clues. After finding clues, it is necessary to keep records of things, pictures, or other suspected things to track down the case from many angles and help people find the cause of any problem.
- Post-Precautionary Measurements. People must concern themselves with the insurance counsellors regarding medical treatment, including expenses. So, the survivors can build the hope of life again with new enthusiasm and regression.
- Psychological counsellors. Other fundamental elements are to go through the phase of an accident. People must try to take therapy or counselling if they have lost a person or other injuries that may cause mental effects. Psychological counsellors or therapists help people analyze and communicate their inner and external thinking.
Take Away
Damaging your car can be hard on you and your wallet, but with the right preparation and plan, you can make the process a lot easier.
Following the above-mentioned crucial steps, you may save yourself and fight for your rights in the best possible way.
To read about how to be careful and prevent such incidents from happening, consider the following articles;
